


Fighting for More

by gloamings



Series: Pepperony Week 2k14 [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Drinking, F/M, Fights, Flirting, Hurt/Comfort, Pepperony Week, Pre-Relationship, actual white knight Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 19:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1789783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloamings/pseuds/gloamings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes Tony five years of pleading, pouting, and flirting, but he finally convinces Pepper to come out drinking with him.</p>
<p>VERY Pre-Iron Man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fighting for More

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 (Theme: Injury/Hurt) of [Pepperony Week](http://pepperonyweek.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Special thanks to [Jordan](http://tonystarksass.tumblr.com/) for inadvertently giving me the idea for this.

It takes Tony five years of pleading, pouting, and flirting, but he finally convinces Pepper to come out drinking with him.

It’s not like Pepper never goes out -- it’s just that, since becoming Tony’s PA, she’s gone out less and less as he’s taken up more and more of her life. While he leaves the office at 2 PM to get a head start on the bar scene, Pepper is more often than not still filing paperwork until late into the night.

Plus, she’s usually far too tired to get dressed up and go out. At least that’s what she tells herself.

She used to go out all the time, especially when she modeled. Clubs were more her scene then -- dancing, drinking, laughing, flirting, more dancing. She sighs thinking about those nights; they feel like they happened to a different person. Eighteen year old Virginia feels a lifetime away from late-twenties Pepper.

Pepper insists that they arrive separately, trying to make it very clear that this is just two co-workers going out for a night of fun, but Tony quickly shuts her down.

“I’m not having you driving home drunk, Potts,” he says, matter-of-factly, when she approaches him at the end of the work day, his feet up on his desk.

“Mr Stark --”

“It’s Tony, please,” he says, waving a hand dismissively at her, “ you’ve been working for me for years now, and we’re about to go on a bender together, be informal for once.”

She continues, choosing to ignore his request. “We are _not_ going on a bender. I am _not_ going to be drinking that much! I’ll be perfectly fine driving myself home.”

He rolls his eyes. “Nonsense, Pepper,” he says, dropping his feet from the desk and standing up. “You’re going out with _me_. With any luck, you won’t even remember the night.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Oh god, why did I agree to this again?”

He waggles his eyebrows at her. “My wit? My charm? My stunning good looks?”

She scoffs. “More like I couldn’t stand to hear you ask me one more time.”

“That’s how I do it!” he says with a smile, clapping his hands on her shoulder. “Now, go home and change into something…” -- he gives her a once over -- “...you _do_ own something besides pencil skirts, right?”

She reaches her arms up between his to push his hands off and smiles back. “I’m driving myself, okay?”

Five hours later, Pepper is putting the finishing touches on her outfit. Tony neglected to mention what sort of bar they were going to tonight, so she had to guess what sort of place he would frequent. Thinking that he’s more of a wine bar type, she opts for a long, loose navy dress with a high slit, a tailored blazer, and wedged heels.

Just as she’s grabbing her keys to leave, her doorbell rings. When she answers it, Happy is standing there with a shrug and a half-smile, the kind that says, “I’m so sorry, Tony made me.”

She sighs. Tony could never take “no” for an answer.

When Happy opens the car door for her, she hears Tony whistle.

“My my, Ms Potts, do those legs ever end?” he says as she gets in the car, her leg flashing through the slit. She rolls her eyes and blushes at the same time.

The first bar they go to is on the top floor of a skyscraper. Tony walks ahead of her, past the line outside, has a quick laugh with the bouncer, and pauses to let Pepper walk in first. Up and up they go in the elevator, until the door opens and Pepper is glad she dressed on the formal side. This bar is upscale, everything glowing with a soft blue light. Techno music is thumping in the background, muffled through the chatter of the crowd. The place comes off as kind of snooty, and Pepper wonders if this really is the type of bar that Tony frequents, or if he was trying to impress her. She had always pegged him as a type to enjoy dive bars over this sort of scene.

Tony places a hand low on her back as they walk to the bar, and she nudges him.

“This is supposed to be professional!” she tells him with raised eyebrows. “Hands to yourself, please.”

“Alright, alright!” he says, raising his arms and smiling. “Can’t blame me for trying, though. What are you drinking?”

And though she insists that she pay for herself, he waves her off and orders her a greyhound and himself a scotch, neat.

“Thank you,” she says when the drink arrives.

“To seeing Pepper wasted!” Tony shouts exuberantly, clinking his glass with hers. “I don’t want to see you with an empty glass tonight, Potts.”

After a few more drinks, Pepper has loosened up considerably. Tony, who stayed and chatted through her first drink, has long since been distracted by a leggy blonde, which leaves Pepper to fend for herself.

For a while, she stays at the bar, sipping on her third drink, still not keen on mingling. Then, she spies Tony at the other end of the bar with a different girl than before, who looks no older than nineteen. He’s got his hand on her hip and whatever he’s whispering in her ear must be hilarious, because she’s giggling like there’s no tomorrow. She feels inexplicably angry at the girl, at him -- wasn’t this whole night his suggestion anyway? Damn it, she can have a good time, just like he can.

She downs the rest of her drink and walks towards the dance floor, where a sizeable crowd is already dancing. Glancing over the crowd, she spots a tall, lithe, dark haired man and makes her way over to him. He looks over at her and smiles as she approaches, and she wraps her arms around his neck, swaying to the beat.

A small voice in the back of her head is telling her that she probably shouldn’t be this forward with someone she doesn’t know, but a much louder voice that’s fueled by the three drinks she’s had is telling her to dance closer to him. So she does, eyes locked with his, his hands ghosting down the back of her dress and resting on her ass.

After a few more songs, Pepper pulls away from him to go back to the bar and get another drink. She thinks she hears him say something like, “No, don’t go, babe!” but the edge is wearing off and if she’s going to continue doing this, then she’s going to need to be _much_ more drunk. Maybe Tony would get his wish after all.

As she’s about to place her order, she hears Tony shouting behind her, his words slurring.

“Hey Pepper!” she turns around to see he’s got the giggling girl still on his arm. “We’re ditching this joint, you coming?”

“Sure, let me just close --”

“No no no no no,” he says, shaking his head with every ‘no,’ “don’t worry about the tab. It’s all on me. Someone can pick up my card in the morning.”

“That’s what _I_ usually do, Mr Stark.”

“Shit!” he says with a bark of laughter. “You’re right!”

Hurriedly, Pepper closes her tab while Tony continues to laugh behind her. She then follows Tony and his date out to the next bar, trying not to get pissed off at the way he keeps stopping and kissing her while they walk.

The second bar is more like a pub -- it’s dark, dirty, and definitely more the type of place she would have guessed Tony liked. She passes right by Tony and his date, who are already groping each other, going straight to the bar for a tequila shot. She pointedly ignores Tony’s celebratory whooping in the background.

The tequila is rough going down, but it’s still not as bad as glancing around and seeing Tony and that girl now making out in the corner. Does she even know who he is? She must, everyone knows Tony Stark these days. She probably thinks she’s going to be different than the rest of the girls, but Pepper knows she’ll have to call her a cab in the morning, just like the rest of them.

Pepper isn’t usually a sad, angry drunk, but fuck, Tony invited her out and now he isn’t even going to try to talk to her? Not that he ever did much talking, besides about himself, but somehow, she thought tonight would be different.

She laughs to herself. Apparently all the women in Tony’s life think they’re going to be different, and she’s no exception.

“Hey,” she hears someone say behind her, and when she turns around, she sees the man from the previous bar, the man she had been dancing with. “Wondered where you’d got to.”

Pepper, already feeling down about herself because of Tony, starts feeling even worse as she sees the predatory glint in this guy’s eyes. He must have followed them at least five blocks to this bar. She smiles back at him out of courtesy.

“I’m Matt,” he says, sticking out his hand. “Didn’t get a chance to tell you before you ran off.”

“Virginia,” she says, shaking his hand reluctantly, looking everywhere except at his face, hoping he’ll just disappear.

“What are you drinking?”

“Oh, no more for me, thanks,” she says with a laugh, cursing how drunk she still is, still avoiding eye contact.

“Virginia,” he says slowly, and the way he says it makes her want to change her name permanently. “Pretty name for a pretty girl.” He reaches up to touch her face. She backs away.

“I should really --"

“Hey, what’s wrong? Don’t tell me that loser you were walking with was your boyfriend, babe.”

“Well, no, I just --”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Hey,” she hears Tony’s voice from behind her, “she’s not interested, pal.”

She turns around and sees Tony standing behind her, fists clenched, face set. The girl he was with is nowhere to be seen. He slowly moves forward and gets himself between Pepper and Matt.

“Why don’t you let the lady speak for herself?” Matt says, scoffing at Tony’s posturing. He looks away from Tony and locks eyes with her.

“I -- I --” she stutters. All of this is way more than she can handle, and it doesn’t help that her head is still swimming from her drink. “Tony, can we go?” is all she can think to say.

That doesn’t make Matt very happy. “What, so you’re gonna go home with this guy?”

He reaches out and grabs Pepper’s wrist, and a second later -- _WHAM!_ \-- Tony’s fist slams into the side of Matt’s face.

Pepper shrieks and jumps off of the barstool, quickly getting out of the way of what’s turning into a pretty intense bar fight between Tony and Matt. Matt, who is terrifyingly sober, proves to be faster than Tony, and slugs him right in the middle of the face. Tony stumbles backwards, grabbing at the bar, but lunges forward to take another swing at Matt.

In the meantime, Pepper calls Happy and tells him to come pick them up as soon as he can. Blessedly, it only takes Happy fifty-five seconds to get to the bar, though in that brief time, Tony has since slumped to the ground, his nose bleeding profusely. Matt runs out of the bar and Pepper doesn’t care enough to press charges, she’s too busy helping Happy lift Tony off the ground and walking him to the car.

The ride back to Tony’s house is a blur of obscenities and blood. Tony is still very drunk, which makes him harder to understand than usual, but she is able to make out the words “bastard,” “fuck,” and “asshole” a number of times.

Once they get Tony into the living room and lowered onto the couch, Pepper takes stock of the damage. His nose isn’t broken, but his face is badly bruised. Sobering up quickly in the face of having to take care of Tony, she grabs the first aid kit, tells Happy to go on home, and gets to work.

“Christ, that guy was a _fucking_ pile of _shit_ , Pep!” he says as she gently wipes the blood off of his face and neck. He’s sitting up now, his arms spread across the back of the couch, while Pepper perches on the edge. “And he fucking _grabbed_ your _arm_? What a shitstain!”

She chuckles at his choice of words, but he takes this as her laughing at him. “I’m serious!” He sits forward to emphasize his point, and Pepper pushes him back into the couch gently.

“Seriously, Pepper,” he continues as she finishes wiping off the blood and starts bandaging, “I’m… I’m glad I was there, y’know? I mean, it’s kind of my fault anyway since I was the one who forced you to come out, but… I mean, y’know, it’s -- ow!” he exclaims as Pepper cleans one of his deeper cuts with an alcohol wipe. “Fuck! That burns!”

“I’m done now,” she says soothingly, “at least, with your face. Give me your hand.”

He obliges, bringing over his right hand for Pepper to inspect. His knuckles are bloodied and swollen, but she doesn’t think any of them are broken. She holds him at the wrist and starts to wipe off the blood gingerly.

She never really took time to appreciate his hands, she thinks as she strokes his knuckles and fingers with the warm cloth. Despite appearances, she knows that Tony is practically a genius, and spends just as much time tinkering with his hot rods as he does drinking and snarking. The palm of his hand and the tips of his fingers are heavily calloused, she notices, as she turns his hand over to continue cleaning. She doesn’t know if it’s the alcohol or something else, but she has the strongest urge to bring his hand up to her mouth and kiss the tip of each finger.

Instead, she looks up, and sees that Tony is watching her intently while she cleans his hand, his head tilted slightly to one side and his lips curled into a smile.

“Thanks,” she says, looking back at his hand, starting to bandage the worst areas. “For that. For tonight.”

“It’s nothing, Pep,” he says. “How’s the damage?”

“Nothing seems to be broken,” she says, finishing up with his hand and looking back up, “but I’d still get it checked out tomorrow. I’ll call in the morning and make the appointment.”

He closes his eyes and smiles, apparently too tired, or still too drunk, to give his usual retort.

“You take such good care of me, Pepper,” he says, gripping her knee with his bandaged hand and stroking his thumb lightly along her dress. She’s grateful his eyes are still closed so that he can’t see her blush.

She places her hand lightly on top of his and his thumb stills. “Will that be all, Mr Stark?”

He opens his eyes and looks right at her, eyebrows slightly raised. He sits there, just looking at her, for a long time, and though it should feel awkward to have this much eye contact with Tony, Pepper can’t look away. He opens his mouth to speak, but then closes it again as he reconsiders.

“That will be all, Ms Potts.”


End file.
